Currency Maintenance

Sometimes regions change their currency, go out of business, join, split ...

ISO 4217 Committee

The official ISO 4217 committee website maintains 3 XML files reflecting the current ISO 4217 standard:

List of codes for historic denominations of currencies & funds: https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/lists/list_three.xml

Current currency & funds code list: https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/lists/list_one.xml; This is the list of currenciess now in effect; it provides the country, currency name, currency abbreviation, currency code, and number of decimal places for the smallest currency unit.

Current funds codes list: https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/lists/list_two.doc; Some central banks registered beneath their currency special funds. This doc explains them.

Amendments: https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/overview_amendments.xlsx; Changes to the currency codes lists occur if a currency is created, withdrawn or parts altered. This spreadsheet provides only the country name, currency abbreviation, amendment number, and month the amended standard was issued. In June 2019 the actual amendments can be accessed from https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/dl_currency_iso_amendment_XXX.pdf by replacing "XXX" with the amendment number. The directory page is not accessible. Amendments < 100 are not zero filled, e.g. https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/dl_currency_iso_amendment_62.pdf not https://www.currency-iso.org/dam/downloads/dl_currency_iso_amendment_062.pdf.

The swiss exchange SIX as office of currency-iso.org offers the free newsletter service that notifies subscribers about any changes related to currency codes: https://www.six-group.com/en/products-services/financial-information/data-standards/newsletter.html.

Create an XSLT to facilitate the maintainance of our list.
A few thoughts: https://lists.gnucash.org/logs/2019/06/25.html#T17:22:04
Decide behaviour of GnuCash for existing accounts after changes
This is currently only a collection if thoughts.
1. General rule: let the user do the changes by creating new accounts and closing the old in the new accounts.
2. Decimals dropped
3. Replacement, e.g. 1000 RUR-> 1 RUB
Document what the users should do after currencies, which are used in their accounts, changed